"I made a mash, 5 lbs sugar & 3 gallons of water & whole corn (About 4 inches of corn in a 5 gallon bucket). I used RedStar dry yeast from Walmart. Is that something to use, or is there something else? The mash fermented for 5 days (The recipe called for that). Obviously fermentation times can vary. At the end of the fermentation, the mash was cloudy, almost a milky color. Not sure if this is normal. It smelled like alcohol. So is there anything I should have done differently?

Distillation: My still is a 12Qt stainless steel pot, with a copper coil in a 5 gallon bucket with cold water.

First run, it took about 75 mins to get the mash up to 173 degrees. I noticed no dripping between 140-170. Once is was past 180, I got about a table spoon of shine. It had a yellow tint, and smelled kinda funky. Almost like rubbing alcohol but with a weird scent. I ran it for about 3 hours, and that's all I got. What am I doing wrong here?

Anything is appreciated. "

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So pretty much there was nothing to boil off? I'll grab a hydrometer, and what should it read?"

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Alright, i'll won't use a much corn. Is there any other kind of yeast that is readily available and is a better product? Sorry, i'm kind of new to this. So by cook, you mean cook yeast/sugar or something like that? By pitching you mean adding the yeast? Correct me if i'm wrong. I added the yeast when the water was about 31-32C. Thanks."

"Josh, try a really easy recipe to build your confidence, like sugar/water with enzymes and nutrients or maybe the babyfood recipe in the recipe section. These are really easy to get supplies for. That bread yeast you mentioned will work just fine when used with the correct ingrediants and the wash preparred in the proper fashion.
You mentioned yellow color to your distillate -- think back --how hard did you boil the wash???? It sounds like you really put the heat to it. But with that much corn well maybe thats just whats gonna happen. Again just like BW said -- lots af variables to this question and there could be lots of reasons these things happened to you. Dont give up or get offended by statements made all these folks want to help you learn."

Well it sounds fairly rational to me. Not sure where this choo choo jumped the tracks:) We sure the yeast was good and viable etc. Wasnt laying around in Granny's pantry for 20 years or something like that hopefully. Have you studied up on Heeler's plan to get the yeast rehydrated and boosted in numbers before adding to the wash? Great strategy in my book.

Sounds logical on the baby food thing. The variant I have adopted is thusly. Scoop out about a pint of wash in quart jar and pitch the yeast into that after adding enough ice water to bring it in range. Let it set while the main wash cools off. I am fixing to start giving this an extry day to set next time..due to some updated advice from Heeler. The low end of the pitching temps mentioned sound a bit coolish to me. My distillers yeast say it can take up to 97f. and I know the bread yeast can go into the low hundreds and be OK..want to say 106 or 103 somewhere in there. Cold wash really slow down the growing. Coulda been your yeast didnt have time to work yet. If you maintained close to 70 for five days after pitching..I betcha a buck that was the issue. It just needed more time or more heat. Now if you was closer to 80 that should be about ideal to split the difference. I try to maintain 78 room temp and dont bother to check the wash temp which always feelers cooler to the touch. Might be 70 down in there. Who knows? If the wash has worked it should not taste real sweet to the tongue and should not be actively working..bubbling etc. The gauge thing comes in real handy to confirm your other clues as to whether it is ready to run. Now are we sure we are working the still right? Lot of variables here..lol.

Josh, your basement temperature is perfect for fermenting and not producing off flavors.

If it does, use a brewbelt and a small heating pad-- control both of them with a thermowell and a ranco control. I think we get the cleanest washes when they are fermanted between 65 and 70 deg F.

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Alright, i'll give it a try. I'll let you know how it goes, thanks for the advice!"

Well congrats. Not sure the burning color is much of an indicator. Some say its an old wifes tale. I lit off a few batches but couldnt tell much. Some of it was burning invisible and stuff like that. Nose is your best pal in my book.